Rabusongu
by Arkaidy
Summary: The Sequal to Ningen. Sixteen years have past... but where are Rurutip and Ningen now? Part Two of three.
1. I Have Another Story

" Rabusongu: The Sequel to 'Ningen' "  
-Vega  
  
***  
  
Thanks: To both Icegaze and Shadow Danced. Thanks to you two for kicking my muse in the ass. And for your words, be they inspirational, analytical, critical, or creative. Oh, and to my Grade 11 Vocal teacher, Kelly Janzen for the opera-singer anecdote. It's true. Honest. Just ask her.  
  
Rabusongu = Love Song  
***  
  
I don't know if you remember me. My name is Maria - to me.   
  
Mayra to some.  
  
Ningen to most.  
  
If you do remember me, it's been seventeen years since then; since Vejiita-ouij was destroyed and young, innocent Gohan murdered. Seventeen years since anyone has last seen Kakarotto, who vanished shortly after the battle which revealed his SuperSaiya-jinn power.  
  
If you are just meeting me for the first time, let me re-cap: Seventeen years and some odd months ago, a Saiya-jinn named Rurutip heard me singing, and because of it decided he wanted to take me away to be his concubine.   
  
He did. I nearly died a few times.  
  
I was bitter a lot. I've gotten over most of that, but I still am a little.  
  
My singing caused a few tragedies, and I haven't opened my yap to let a note escape since.  
  
As for Rurutip, I began to trust him. What other choice did I have? He's all I had.   
  
Trust became respect, then amiability, then lust -always lust- and then a sort of watered-down version of love.  
  
More like a brother than a lover.  
  
Odd, since despite our heated and not-always-serious arguments always ended with his screwing me blind.  
  
There. Now everyone's up to date.  
  
So why am I writing now?  
  
Well, I have another story to tell.  
  
***  
  
It begins ten months after the battle that left hundreds of Saiya-jinn and Frieza's men alike dead and me permanently crippled in my left leg. By this time, I had been in Rurutip's possesion for about fifteen months at that point.  
  
Do you remember when I mentioned that Vejiita-ou was searching for a new mate?  
  
Well, he found one, six months prior and, by her, he had another son. (The Saiya-jinn gestation period is six moths)  
  
His name is traditionally and officially 'Vejiita', but because the former Prince was so fresh in the empire's mind, the baby was nick-named 'Vejii'.  
  
Well, what does that have to do with me?  
  
I'm getting to that.  
  
Also, around that time, Rurutip was promoted again, to fill in the gaps in the hierarchy that the many deaths after the Frieza battle caused on the night that Kakarotto's SuperSaiya-jinn was revealed.  
  
You know, it's odd. No one actually SAW him go. But when Bardocku went to collect him, he had vanished, his son's body having vanished too.  
  
Every once in a while I used to wish that he had taken me with him, but I understand that he didn't. He had nothing left, his life might have well been over. He knew I at least had Ru, and he wouldn't take that from me too.  
  
So, Rurutip was moved into the palace so he could take control of a battalion of squads. He co-ordinated missions that each of his twenty squads went on, and sometimes had to go on them himself. That meant I moved into the palace with him and, when he had to go on missions, I went too. I was part of his luggage.  
  
...I'm going to tell you a secret.  
  
Twenty years ago, when I was given a permanent limp and was the cause of homicides beyond counting, I swore I would never ever sing another note again.  
  
But one day, when Vejii was mere months old, there was a small crisis that every Saiya-jinn on the ship Rurutip and I were travelling had to attend to, and were called away. This included the King -who was there for diplomatic reasons- and all the warriors in attendance of the tiny Prince as well.  
  
Well, with the absence of all familiar ki and scents, the baby went into tantrum-mode, and none of the slaves left behind knew how to quiet him.  
  
Finally, they sent for me.  
  
My reputation had grown since my story had spread, and I was very well respected among the other slaves, which was very disconcerting sometimes. I often wondered if it spread as far as home. Did my parents know what I'd done? Who I'd killed?  
  
Anyway, I was offered respect by the others for having survived with Rurutip as long as I did -most concubines don't live beyond four moths, I'd learned; and most often than not they died by suicide- and so in a panic they begged me to come do something.  
  
What they didn't know is that I wasn't just Ru's pet, his fuck toy, I was his... well, I was ALMOST his friend.  
  
...So yes, back to my secret.  
  
I had promised never to sing again, but as you all know, I'm only human.  
  
And, it was the only way I could think of to calm the kiddo down.  
  
And so I sang.  
  
Lost in the beautiful melodies I'd missed so much, I rocked little Vejii back and forth as he wrapped his tiny little tail around my arm.  
  
I must have sang for two hours straight, ignoring the world around me.  
  
When I finally realized that Vejii was asleep, and had been for quite some time now, I smiled and softly and stood from the chair I had settled in, placing him gently into his strangely shaped crib.  
  
Then I turned to the door to leave, and gasped in shock when I saw that the King was standing in the doorway, a look of mesmerized shock on his face and the edge of his cape twisted between two bloody gloves.  
  
I looked to the floor, face flushing in embarrassment, and he dropped the fabric, his customary stone expression returning and wiping out the formerly dazed one.  
  
I gave a quick bow and made my way past him, but as I shuffled rapidly towards the door, he held out his hand and grabbed my upper arm.  
  
I stared at his fingers curled around my flesh in shocked wonder.  
  
This was the first time the King had ever touched me.  
  
"Don't come in here again without my permission, bitch." he snapped, staring past my head.  
  
"Hai." I squeaked. Was he going to beat me for being in here, with the baby?  
  
He let go, and then, just as I reached the door he said, slowly, "You would sing again... For my son?"  
  
"Hai, wagakimi." I answered in low tones, quiet and nervous.  
  
He nodded briskly, and let me go on my way.  
  
***  
  
Apparently the King never told anyone he heard me singing, for nothing really changed for the next few days, except our return to Vejiita-sei.  
  
Each day I woke up in the morning, got dressed, ate, drew a little, read a little, sang to myself, and basically did nothing until mid-afternoon when Rurutip would have his daily work-out. It was something to do, so I'd often go and watch. Some days I'd meet with other slaves -although I was the only human in the palace- if we were all free at the same time, to talk and whatnot, but I always made certain to be back in Ru's chambers before he was.  
  
Then we ate together, bathed, and had sex. Pillow talk involved me tending to his various cuts and scrapes, if he'd gained any over the day, and he would grumble about things. Then he would lick away all the blood he had drawn earlier off my skin earlier, and we'd do it over again until I fell asleep.  
  
Very simple schedule  
  
Of course, sometimes he'd come back during the day, or he wouldn't leave at all. Those were the days that I'd try to teach him how to pronounce my name right, or to draw. He was hopeless. He couldn't draw a stick figure to save his life.  
  
However, after about three days, I was sent for by the King.  
  
Rurutip gave me a strange look, having thought that the guard that had arrived at his door had been sent to collect him.  
  
"It's probably nothing, Ru-kun." I whispered to him as I rose from the table where we had been having our morning meal. He gave me another look and I smiled disarmingly.  
  
Then I winked at Rurutip and the guard and I were off.  
  
I'm not sure if he LIKED the name "Ru-kun", but he never complained about it. Besides, the moniker "Ningen" had stuck with me... although when he said it, it didn't hold the distanced aloofness it often did when other Saiyans said it.  
  
My thoughts wandered back to the night before as I limped along the hall, and a bright flag of embarrassment fanned across my nose and cheeks.   
  
Ru only called me "Mayra" when we... you know.  
  
I was almost ready to give up trying to get him to say "Maria."  
  
When we reached the doors to the King's palatial chambers, the guard signalled my arrival through the intercom, then left.  
  
Without thinking, I automatically bowed as he withdrew, then again as the doors hissed open.   
  
I did not look up until I was told to. Ru had trained me well. Feh.  
  
"Ningen." I heard the King's mellifluous voice say. "Come."  
  
I entered the room steadily and stopped a few metres away from where Vejiita-ou sat regally on a chair, as if it were his throne back in the carpeted, vaulted throne room.  
  
"Hai, wagakimi?" I asked politely.  
  
"Do you hear that?" He jerked his thumb towards the adjoining door, through which the piercing wails of the little Prince could be heard.  
  
"Hai."  
  
The King nodded slowly and stroked his goatee with one finger. "Vejiita's tail was trod on by some slave bitch this morning."  
  
I gasped in horror, my eyes wide. How horrid! The poor Prince!  
  
The King couldn't quite hide his pleased grin as he continued. "His ki manifested physically for the first time today, and he destroyed her."   
  
My eyes widened even more. There was a moment of silence, mine horror-stuck, his proud.  
  
"His first kill," the king then smiled, "and he's not even a year old yet." His grin then faded, as if he suddenly remembered himself. "However, the ki left his hands burned and we can't shut him up."  
  
He glared pointedly at me.   
  
"I'll try." I said softly.  
  
He merely snorted and dismissed me to his son's room with a wave of his hand.  
  
I obeyed.  
  
***  
  
Looking down at Vejii, my hands resting lightly on the edge of the crib, I smiled softly.  
  
Vejii screamed even louder and I grimaced, my smile sliding downwards.  
  
"Oi, kiddo!" I yelled, "What a set of lungs you've got."  
  
He only screamed louder.  
  
I leaned over the edge to try to lift him and he wrapped a chubby little fist rather painfully into my fine hair, which I hadn't had time to tie back that morning.  
  
I froze and glowered at the little pince, leaning lower so he wasn't pulling so hard. He slitted his little triangular eyes and grabbed more hair.  
  
I think he liked the feel of it against his burned skin, for it must have felt cool and silken. It gave me an idea. I leaned all the way down - careful to keep my face far enough away lest he decided to bite me (Saiyans are born with teeth) - and shook my hair in his face.  
  
He paused in his sobs and blinked at me.  
  
"Yeah, you think that's pretty cool, huh?" He didn't resist when I moved to pick him up. The only move he made was to snake his tail out and around my wrist.  
  
I ran a finger over the visible welt on it once I had set him down on a nearby dressing table, and Vejii whimpered. Afraid of hurting him even more, I decided to sing as I inspected his injury. It might not hurt as much if he was distracted.  
  
"Sleep my baby,  
Rest, my loved one.  
Softly slumber now with me.  
  
Wrapped in mother's arms, so tender.  
Warm in mother's love for thee.  
  
Naught shall ever   
Come to harm thee,  
While my loving watch I keep.  
  
Sleep, my baby,   
smile and slumber.  
Whilst I sing thy lullaby..."  
  
By the time I had finished, Vejii was considerably more calm, wearing the same entranced face his father often did when I used to sing in court, staring up at me with sparkling obsidian eyes from the dressing table.  
  
I smiled at him, and he imitated back. Then I lifted his tail gently. Blood matted some of the soft puppy-like fur in the middle. Whoever had stepped on him must have cut his tail with the edge of soles of their shoes, and no one had dared get close enough to the Prince after the first ki outburst to tend to him.  
  
I frowned momentarily. But the King had sent for ME. Did that mean he saw me as expendable? I was almost... insulted.  
  
At any rate, the cut on Vejii's tail and the burn splotches on his palms were cleaned, rubbed with salve, and bandaged soon enough.  
  
Content that Vejii was content, I then moved the two of us to a nearby chair and sang to him until I saw his hands and lips begin to search for my breasts through the fabric of my dress.  
  
"Oh, no." I laughed and lifted him away from the warmth of my body. "You don't want those. They're empty."  
  
He blinked at me a few times, then began to wail again.  
  
I laughed and walked out of his rooms with him in my arms, and into the main sitting room with Vejiita-ou was.  
  
The King stood from his desk, where he had been perusing battle reports, and stalked up to me angrily.   
  
"I thought you'd shut him up!" he snapped.  
  
I handed the little Prince over, and the King held him out, away from his body as if he'd never held a child before.  
  
"I've done all I can do." I beamed, "But you gotta get his Mom to do the rest."  
  
The King looked at me blankly.  
  
"He's hungry."  
  
***  
  
Some time after I was dismissed from the Royal rooms, I tracked Ru down to an empty sparring room and sat on the floor in the corner, my back against the wall.  
  
He liked me watching him work out.   
  
In those first few months together, Rurutip was often loathe to let me out of his sight, and so had actually dragged me along to his sparring sessions, sometimes physically carrying me there if I admitted I didn't want to watch him beat the shit out of his subordinates.  
  
It gave him a sense of superiority when he could flaunt his physique - it stated very plainly "I'm big and strong, and you're not, so don't do anything stupid".   
  
Now, just over a year later, it was a habit I had begun to enjoy. He was mesmerizing to watch and he possessed a grace I had never expected to find in a huge, lumbering warrior like himself.   
  
When Ru wanted to be, he was just as silent, flexible, and quick as a cat.  
  
And, truthfully, I kinda liked watching his smooth muscles sliding beneath his sweat-sheened olive skin. It was attractive.  
  
He had even offered to train me once, but I had just laughed and said that if he wanted me limber at night, I better not train during the day. He had chuckled and shown me right there how much he liked having me limber.  
  
Today, Rurutip was shadow-sparring, and I looked on with a tilted head and chin on my knees.  
  
"Ru-kun," I asked once he had paused in his movements - katas, I had learned they were called - to wipe his sweat-matted hair from his eyes.  
  
He looked over at me, annoyed that I had broken his concentration. I grinned a little, pleased that only one word from me COULD break his concentration. However, he had once admitted that he could never resist the curiosity my words always aroused in him, and so he responded to my question with a grunted: "Hn?"  
  
"Do you have children?"  
  
He froze, then stalked over to tower over me. "Why?"  
  
"You've never said." I shrugged. "I was curious."  
  
He stared at me, hard and long. Something was going on behind his dark ashy eyes, but for the life of me I didn't know what.  
  
Then he finally sighed and sat against the wall beside me.  
  
"I had a mate when I was younger." he admitted, staring at nothing. I looked over to study his face. It was very carefully blank. "She perished in battle seven years ago."  
  
I blinked, wondering how old he would have been then. Nineteen? Twenty?  
  
He went on:  
  
"She had been carrying our first offspring when she was killed..." he sighed again, his eyes finally finding mine. "I've never had a mate since. I don't want brats. Not anymore. And I don't want a new mate, either. Not unless the King makes me."  
  
"Oh." I said, relief prickling my skin. Oh, I already knew that he'd never want 'weak, half-ling brats' with me... but it was nice to hear him confirm it himself. I was terrified of the idea that he might force me to bear him a child one day. What sort of life could that possibly be for ANY baby?  
  
Ru got back up resumed his workout until he was too exhausted to get up off the floor.  
  
I grinned evilly and crawled over to and on top of him.  
  
"You stink," I said softly.   
  
He only grinned back and leaned his face up to mine.  
  
***  
  
It wasn't long before the King or one of his servants was calling me daily to calm Vejii. And it was an even shorter period of time before I was forced to invent new songs. The old ones didn't satisfy the small prince after a week or so of hearing the same thing.   
  
My schedule, once simple, became more complex: Ru, food, go to the library to invent songs, watch him spar, food, Ru, sleep. On top of that, I was called to the prince whenever His Highness felt I was needed, regardless of what I wanted. Reading and drawing, two of my three solaces, were overcome by my third, singing.   
  
Ru, uneasy with the changes, demanded to know what was going on. It took some time to explain things to him -hell, he was stubbornly dense about things he didn't like - but once he understood, he simply rolled over onto his stomach (we were in bed at the time) and glowered into his pillow.   
  
It's very amusing, I admit, to watch someone who could snap your neck with their tail sulk because you can't do just what they want all the time. He was essentially a big baby, my Rurutip. All he wanted was my undivided attention at all times for the rest of eternity. Not all that much to ask. Note the sarcasm.  
  
But he was appeased easily enough when I stretched out on his back, lacing my delicate fingers into his, and sang softly into his ear.  
  
If he had lost most of my formally undivided attention to the Prince, he was at least ecstatic that I sang for him again. Quite often I would test my new songs on him before trying them with Vejii, and he would always be very gentle and tender with me afterwards.  
  
He did this very strange thing when I sang; he would sit beside me, on his knees, and make me lie on my back, my own knees over his. Then he would place one hand under me at the small of my back to feel me breathe, and the other against my throat so he could feel the vibrations of my voice.  
  
It was really rather comfortable, and it made me more conscious of my breathing technique, which became finely honed soon enough. If you're a performer, you know what I mean. We breathe WAY down there. I heard a story once that an opera singer once contracted her diaphragm so violently during an aria, that she popped her tampon right out.  
  
No foolin'.  
  
Anyway, this is how my life went until Vejii was old enough to begin to walk and eat solid foods.  
  
I suppose it was rather inevitable that I was to meet Vejii's mother. I just hadn't expected it to be as soon as it was. Or, no. I suppose I hadn't expected to meet her at all. Even the Saiyan people didn't know what she looked like.  
  
I had supposed that it was ritual, or something. Pity I was right.  
  
I almost wish we'd never met at all, not when I learned that she... well, I'm getting ahead of myself.  
  
I most certainly didn't expect her to look like she did.  
  
Perhaps I should back up a bit, though.   
  
Being unofficially dubbed 'Royal Nurse,' the guards by Vejii's doors were quite accustomed to my comings and goings, and I occasionally visited on whim. It was a nice surprise to see that the prince had a side other than that of the shrieking, kicking, one that I had to soothe. But on one of these times, I was granted an extra surprise, and this one not so nice.  
  
I wandered in after a visit to the royal library, actually, to see if the prince was awake. My newest song was what you might call a doozy, and . . .well . . .what writer doesn't want to see how their readers (or listeners, in this case) react?  
  
I slipped in easily enough, and was about to enter when I was, quite suddenly, slammed against the wall. My hands crept up to yank vainly at the hand around my throat as my air was cut off, and I stared, gasping, at the petite woman who held me in place, the prince cradled against her hastily covered breast, milk soaking through the thin cloth.   
  
And just before I fainted, I heard her angry demand of:  
  
"Why are you in my son's room?"  
  
***  
  
When I came to, it was in Ru's nest.  
  
When I had first reached Vejiita-sei, almost exactly a year earlier, I had learned that though sleeping in a nest of pillows and blankets like Ru did was considered acceptable, most of the higher classed Saiya-jinn preferred actual beds.  
  
Ru, however, stuck stubbornly to his second-class habits, even after being promoted so many times. I suppose I would be unable to sleep in a regular bed now, myself.  
  
Surprisingly, the King was there, seated with a dark expression on a chair next to the nest of pillows and haphazard sheets. Ru stood behind him, arms crossed over his chest, and expression of disappointment and anger on his scarred face.  
  
I think I was more afraid of the disappointment. And did I ever mention that he scratches his scar when he gets upset?  
  
"Vejiita-ou!" I gasped, sitting up hastily, the flopping back down as the stars behind my eyes began an Irish jig. I coughed dryly, my throat seriously hurting.   
  
I had a small panic attack. Had my throat been damaged?! Would I be able to sing still?!  
  
The King glared at me and rose. "Why were you in my son's room? You were NOT sent for!"  
  
I blinked at him, almost stupidly, then shook my head slowly. "Ile. I was not." I admitted painfully, my voice a mere rasp. Oh, it would get better! It HAD to!  
  
"Then why?!" he demanded, one eyebrow arched in fury.  
  
"I ..." I licked my lips nervously and looked to Ru, who turned his face away, indicating that this was my mess to get out of alone. "I wanted to make sure he was okay, is all." I said quietly. "I... sometimes worry."  
  
The King frowned, as if he didn't understand WHY I should care. "Who let you in?! The guards?"  
  
"Hai."  
  
He grumbled under his breath. Then he turned on his heel and stalked over to glower at Ru. The effect might have been comical - tiny 5'3" king, huge 6'11" warrior- but I was too terrified of both of them to laugh.  
  
They spoke in harsh tones in native Saiya-go, and I watched in confusion. Then the King turned back to me. "Don't you EVER come into his rooms without MY permission, bitch!" And left.  
  
Vejii rescinded that order when he got old enough, claiming hotly that I could go wherever, whenever I liked, but once again I get ahead of myself.  
  
I blinked at the King's retreating cape as Ru walked Vejiita-ou out.  
  
By the time Ru had returned, I had managed to prop my self up, head in my hands as the swirls of black and sparkling dots threatened to overwhelm me.  
  
He knelt in front of me and titled my chin back to inspect the harsh bruises on my neck. "You want to go to the Regen Room?" He asked in a low, comforting whisper.  
  
I shook my head 'no', fearing the raspy quality of my voice. If I couldn't sing, I'd been seen as useless and destroyed - or so I feared. I hoped faintly that Ru's bizarre feelings about me might prevent that but.... I couldn't be sure.  
  
I might have been killed earlier, during my self-imposed mute period had the King not realized that even though I WOULDN'T sing, I still COULD. But this time...  
  
Rurutip sighed, and pushed me back onto my back, inspecting all of my skin after stripping away my dress. This was not lust he looked at me with now, but cool, clear analysation.  
  
Satisfied that nothing else was wrong, he laid on his back beside me, one arm digging under my back to hold me close.  
  
"You SHOULD go to a tank." he said to no one in particular, tapping one gloved finger against the amber inlay in the abdomen of his sleeveless armour in a restless mannor.  
  
"No." I whispered softly. "Not unless Falfa's there."  
  
He snorted. "Falfa's been off world for months. You know that. He has his own squad to tend to, now."  
  
I nodded. Yes, I had forgotten.   
  
I almost missed Falfa and Celik.  
  
'Almost' being the key word. Celik had been such an annoying little pervert!  
  
After a long silence I curled my body in to press against Ru and he snorted. "Not tonight. You're hurt."  
  
I nodded thankfully and put my head down on his shoulder.   
  
I suppose I fell asleep, because the next thing I remember was Rurutip sliding out of the sheets, and walking out of the room, head in his hands and a look of pain on his face.  
  
I could almost pretend that the look of pain came from his pondering my demise.  
  
***  
  
The next morning I was sent for, and I entered the Prince's rooms a bit nervously.  
  
I ought to have. These were new rooms.   
  
He was no longer in a chamber adjoined to his father's, but in one of his own, alone. However, despite the fact that it was a dressed-up version of Ru's quarters, one other thing had not changed. Vejiita-ou stood waiting for me.  
  
I bowed slowly, and waited for him to tell me to look up.  
  
He finally motioned with his hand for me to rise and follow him into the bedroom. I did so, and the doors hissed back to reveal the small Prince - now almost a year old and for the first time wearing not a form of diaper but the customary blue unitard of Royalty (warriors wore black) - sitting on the huge bed, blinking around at his new environment.  
  
He smiled in our direction when we entered, and I couldn't tell who he was happier to see, me, or the King. I had a sneaking suspicion it was me.  
  
He held out his hands - the ki burns long healed - wiggling his fingers and I obliged by kneeling at the edge of the bed so he could dig into my hair, giggling.  
  
After a protracted moment of this, I saw the King come to stand beside us, and I looked up, sitting on the edge of the large bed and taking the Prince onto my lap with a small grunt. Saiya-jinn children grow up fast, and Vejii was no exception.  
  
He had already begun to eat solid food and was on the verge of learning to walk without my support to keep him upright. I also had the feeling that his first battle cry was going to come issuing from his throat any day now.  
  
The King looked at us for a long time, then said, voice grave. "How much did you see?"  
  
I pursed my lips, deciding what to say. Finally, I settled with. "If you mean what I saw yesterday, I can assure you it wasn't much, my Lord." I cleared my throat self-consciously. My voice was harsh, but the med technicians said it would heal soon enough.  
  
He frowned. "I need details, bitch." His hands fisted on his hips.  
  
I paused again, after foolishly covering Vejii's ears with my hands. The boy really didn't need to learn such words so early!  
  
"I... walked in. There was a small woman breast-feeding his little majesty. She slammed me against the wall, and before I could answer her demands, I passed out."  
  
The King rubbed his goatee thoughtfully, as he usually did when in deep thought. "And what did she demand?"  
  
"She just wanted to know why I was... in her son's room."  
  
The King stared at me. Then he snapped, "Forget you ever saw her. She doesn't exist anymore."  
  
My eyes grew wide as he turned on his heel and stalked towards the door, and -forgetting my place, or perhaps purposefully ignoring it - I called "What do you mean?" He whipped around to snarl at me, and I hastily added, "My Lord."  
  
He straightened and looked pointedly at the boy in my arms. "None of your damned business."  
  
"With all due respect, Majesty, " I stood slowly, anticipating getting knocked flat on my ass by a fist, "I believe I have a right to know. She did almost kill me, after all."  
  
The King stared at me in cold amusement, arms crossing over his chest and sneer playing upon his lips. "Very well then, " he spat. "It is customary that the mother of the Royal Heir be destroyed after she has finished her services in rearing the brat. That way the child never has the weakness that comes from such a bond. Vejiita's mother was the woman you saw yesterday. She was feeding him for the last time."  
  
I wailed in horror as his words struck home, and fell back onto the Prince's enormous bed.  
  
Then the King spun back around and in a blink of an eye, was gone.  
  
Vejii merely reached up from my lap and ran the tips of his chubby fingers through the glistening salt-water on my cheeks, almost as if he were trying to comfort me.  
  
***  
  
I cried myself to sleep in Ru's arms that night.  
  
He couldn't quite understand what was wrong with me, but comforted me anyway, and let me have my rest.  
  
Words can't describe how grateful I was to him for it.  
  



	2. Time Jump

"Rabusongu - Part two"  
--Vega  
  
***  
  
Sixteen years passed.  
  
I won't bore you with the details.  
  
Falfa was killed during a planetary raid, the poor fellow. Celik took over his spot as squad leader and got his shit together real quick. He turned out to be quite the stunning young man, and although it was obvious he was still grieving for his old lover, Falfa, he won himself a female easily enough and began a family of his own.  
  
There was a scare with Rurutip and I when I thought I might be pregnant, but it turned out that my monthly was just late because I was stressed. I recall having had a real laugh that first month on board Ru's ship when I had to explain to Rurutip what a menstrual cycle was.  
  
Apparently, Saiya-jinn females only became fertile with the coming of the moon, like we humans did. But unlike us, who became fertile, then shed the un-used uterus lining each month, the Saiyans only did so every eight years.  
  
(Lucky bitches!)  
  
So, Rurutip had never really considered that what we did could make me pregnant, and when I had learned this, I had freaked on him. I stated very loudly and very plainly that humans were fertile ALL THE TIME. But, he calmed me with the assurance that -due to some wacko genetic evolutionary thing - Saiya-jinn males could choose wether or not to shoot blanks, as it were. In fact, they were automatically 'blank' unless he chose otherwise.  
  
Boy, was I glad to hear that!  
  
There was another brief period in which I met another human man, roughly the same age as me, and he began to show romantic interest towards me, despite my fervent warnings otherwise.   
  
Rurutip soon straightened that out, and I never saw the man again.  
  
I sincerely hope that Ru didn't kill him, but I'll never be sure.  
  
As I've mentioned before, Saiya-jinn are VERY possessive creatures, and there were three different sets of metaphorical neon "do not trespass" signs floating over my head at all times:  
  
Rurutip's, the King's, and, when he was old enough, Vejii's. The little brat became awful arrogant when he hit five, and he took delight in gloating that the most prized slave in the Saiya-jinn empire sang him to sleep at night.  
  
That problem with the human guy put a strain on our relationship for a while, Ru and me, but after a few days of anger I broke down first and begged him to forgive me. He responded that it was only natural for me to be attracted to my own species, and that he wasn't mad at me.  
  
I couldn't tell if that was a lie or not, but we never spoke of it again and our relationship became stronger.  
  
If I didn't know it was completely impossible... I would've sworn he loved me.  
  
Vejii grew up into a strikingly handsome young man, even by Saiyan standards. His tail was silken and long, longer than his legs, and it's only flaw was the small distinctly visible scar in the middle from when he had been trod upon as a child. Fur simply refused to grow on the scar tissue. His posture was proud, but held none of the arrogance that the former Prince's did.  
  
His hair was the same wild up sweep that his father's was and his brother's had been, but it fell to the side slightly, which annoyed him to no end. He and I tried everything we could to make it stand straight up like his father's - emptied bottles of sprays and gels- but in the end he was resigned to the fact that it would never be anything more than a wind-tossed imitation of Vejiita-ou's.  
  
However, there was one thing that - as Vejii's permanent nurse- I made sure he had: Human Ideology.  
  
Vejii grew up with me constantly at his side, dropping morals and truths into his ear whenever I could, trying to override the arrogance and the egotistical pride that both his father and his trainer, Nappa, tried to beat into him.  
  
I'm not saying Vejii was humble or gentle; no, far from it. He was ruthless and bloodthirsty and always eager for a fight, even if all he could ever get was a verbal skirmish with me. But I made sure he knew who Abraham Lincon was, what the "Natural Rights of Man" were, and what each sentient life form was entitled to.  
  
I turned my boy into a closet Lockian.  
  
And, yes, I said "My."  
  
Vejii was just as much my son as Vejiita-ou's. I raised him, after all. I taught him to walk. I toilet trained the little monkey. I was the one to hear his first word: "Song."  
  
And I was there, by his side, when he reached his sixteenth year and the time came for Prince Vejii to become King Vejiita. I watched stonily, silently urging him to be brave as he slaughtered his own father before the eyes of the court and took the Royal pendant from around the corpse's neck before it was even cold and put it around his own amid the lusty cheers of his people.  
  
And I was the one to comfort him when he sobbed himself to sleep that night.  
  
***  
  
The relationship between Rurutip, my lover, and Vejii, my pseudo-son, was a somewhat odd one.   
  
After killing Nappa at age eight, Vejii wanted to be taught be Rurutip, who -unlike Nappa- had not only formal combat training, but had actually seen battle and had developed his own unique technique.  
  
Vejii was an intelligent fellow, and learned quickly, and although Rurutip never actually became the father figure I had hoped he'd be to the Prince, they became what some might term sparring buddies.   
  
As for Rurutip and I, it's a bit more complicated. We couldn't just knock each other's heads in to get along, and while I was away raising Vejii a lot during his younger years, we fought heatedly. We fell back into the old patterns of our earlier days together, and my glib tongue often earned me a good wallop or two.  
  
Vejii would get mad at Rurutip if I showed up with any visible bruising, and then beat the shit out of him in turn in their sparring. That would upset Ru, and he'd be edgy, and one wrong word from me would start it all over again. It was almost amusing, the way the circle went.  
  
But, after Vejii grew up and I had more time to devote to Ru, the old sense of mutual respect and sort-of-but-not-really love returned.  
  
Once, when Vejii was about 12, Rurutip and I were in bed, both of us exhausted and teetering on the cusp of sleep. I had leaned over to Ru, very sleepily, and licked the edge of his ear.  
  
"No more." he had sighed. "You're too tired."  
  
"I love you." I had answered softly, falling at once back into the land of dreams.  
  
He stared at me, snorted, rolled over, and went to sleep.  
  
We never spoke of the 'l' word again.  
  
***  
  
Let us now, dear reader, jump ahead to last year, three months after I held Vejii as he cried himself to sleep in my arms.  
  
He really had cared about his father, and the King really had cared about him too. I think, after having lost his first son, Vejiita-ou had made a point of being there for Vejii, even though they were expected to hate one another in public.  
  
Vejii became Vejiita-ou, although I could never break the habit of calling him Vejii. Odd, since he never called me "Ningen", save for in public. At age 11, when he realized that he shared a name with 56 other Kings, he had become fascinated with names, and had demanded mine.  
  
He was the only one to ever pronounce it right.  
  
Anyway, in the days after his ascension, the empire became a nicer place to live. I'm not saying he changed everything drastically, but it became a generally more humane and fair society.  
  
Very few slaves were captured after that, though no rules were passed to ban them; that was just wishful thinking on my part. Vejiita-sei was opened to diplomats and travellers - all of whom had to wear gravity devises to keep from getting squished like I did - and even a few from Chikyuu.  
  
How strange it was to hear it be called "Earth" after seventeen years.  
  
And how odd was it that one such diplomat - a young man named Anthony - was one of my old best friends.  
  
Can you guess how much Rurutip and Vejii loved that?  
  
I can tell you right now -neither of them wanted me to remember my roots, and hated Tony from the first moment I recognized him.  
  
***  
  
Because Vejii and I were very close - though mostly in secret - I often attended Vejii in court, though to most I was just known as the chick with the voice who was always ready nearby with a song.  
  
More often than naught I was there for moral support, but no one else needed to know that.  
  
So, there I was, standing to the rear of Vejii's dias, behind Rurutip, who was the King's most trusted guard, when this lanky, blond-haired guy walks up to the throne and bows, Chikyuu-jinn style.  
  
I peered at him curiously, blinking.   
  
I ... almost recognized this face....  
  
And that's when it hit me, of course. I must've known this guy sixteen years ago on Chikyuu-sei, though for the life of me I couldn't recall where from.  
  
Was he.. My old neighbour? No, I don't recall having had a blond neighbour. Although I don't think I could trust my memory after all these years.  
  
Perhaps... well, I used to go to school, didn't I? Maybe I knew him from there?  
  
I payed close attention as the human man did all the sorts of stuff visiting dignitaries did. Praised the empire, hailed the King, invited him to Earth, and never expected him to accept. Vejii didn't of course, and I watched with curiosity as the young man then stated that he had come to Vejiita-sei to interview the other Chikyuu-jinn who had been taken off world since the occupation sixteen years ago, and to make a case study of them.  
  
He also hinted that he was searching for a particular person, I assumed a loved one or relative but kept my mouth shut, and the King made a veiled half-promise to assist him.  
  
Then Vejii turned to me.   
  
"Ningen," he said, continence softening marginally. I nodded and stepped up. "You know every Chikyuu-jinn on Vejiita-sei, do you not?"  
  
I nodded slowly. "Hai, wagakimi."  
  
He waved me towards the blond man at the foot of his dias. "Help him."  
  
"Yes, my Lord." I responded softly and limped down the stairs to join the human. My leg had gotten better over the years. Vejii - when he was old enough to understand such things - had been appalled that my leg had been left the heal so poorly, and much had been done to fix it, but I still had a weak gait nonetheless.  
  
The man stared at my face, hard and long, as if trying to decide if I was human or not.  
  
As we walked out of the large throne room, I leaned over to him to whisper in his ear. "Welcome to Vejiita-sei."  
  
He blinked back at me, and, as we exited, he asked, "Did the king call you 'Ningen'?"  
  
I nodded. "It's a nickname. Um... It means foreigner."  
  
"Yes, I know." he answered softly.  
  
We walked in awkward silence for a little while longer down the hall. Then he asked, "What planet are you from?"  
  
"Chikyuu-sei."  
  
He chuckled.  
  
"Nani?"  
  
"You've been on Vejiita-sei a long time, haven't you?" he asked and I nodded. "I can tell. No human ever calls it Chikyuu."  
  
"Oh." I said softly, mildly shocked that I had absorbed the Saiya-jinn culture so entirely without realizing it.  
  
Another long pause fell between us. Then I asked, "Where are you headed?"  
  
"Oh, anywhere, I suppose." He shrugged. I was almost envious of his casual ease. It had been a very long time since I had been so relaxed anywhere but in Rurutip's arms. "Where ever you want to sit down."  
  
I looked over at him curiously. "What do you mean by that?"  
  
He stopped and looked at me throughly, taking every detail of my dress, my posture, my facial expressions and hairstyle. "I said I was here to make a study of the slave population on Planet Vejiita, so I might as well start with you. My dear, I want to tell your story. You've got to have one."  
  
"I do." I blinked, then smiled faintly. "But I don't think his Majesty would approve."  
  
The human man stared at me hard and long. "Why wouldn't he?"  
  
I shrugged, falling back into the habit from so long ago, and continued to walk aimlessly. He followed. "You don't understand Vejii like I do. He's... possessive." I laughed lightly. "They both are. They might not want me to tell."  
  
"Both?" One tawny eyebrow rose above green eyes.  
  
"Hai." I laughed then said, "Yes. I belong to two Saiya-jinn."  
  
"Which two?" he said into his jacket as he pulled out a pad of paper -which I hadn't seen in YEARS - and a pen.  
  
"Rurutip, and the King."  
  
"Who's Rurutip?"  
  
"The main guard."  
  
"Oh, the big guy beside the throne?"  
  
"Yeah, him."  
  
He was about to ask another question when I waved him to silence and bowed low at the waist. He puzzled at me, until he too heard the tell-tale sounds of a Saiya-jinn warrior stomping angrily in this direction. He backed up against a wall as the tall, lean soldier stormed past. Then he squeaked as the large fighter turned back to us.  
  
"Ningen?" He asked, and I looked up.  
  
"Hai, Celik?" I said softy.  
  
"Ah! It IS you!" He smiled - actually, it was more of a flash of fang, but that's Celik for you.  
  
"Hai."  
  
He took a step closer and bade me rise, then tucked his palm under my chin to study my face. "The years have been kind, little okinirii." he said, lifting my neck as if to search for more mating scars. When he found none, he added "As has Rurutip, I see."  
  
I flashed a brilliant smile. "The years have been more than kind to you, sir. Your lifemate is a lucky woman."  
  
He snorted. "Hai. Tell HER that."  
  
I laughed, he smirked, and then we both went on our separate ways.  
  
The human man stood stock still and stared at me for a very long time. I waited until he was done with whatever thoughts were plaguing him, and steered him towards the gardens. Vejii loved flowers, and he made quite sure that there were always blooms in season.  
  
Once we reached it, I offered him a seat on a stone near the largest tree in the centre of the garden and then curled up myself in the grass.  
  
He removed his jacket for it was a warm day, and re-prepared his notebook.  
  
I grinned at his eager expression and asked, before he could, "What's your name?"  
  
He paused a moment, then smiled warmly. "Anthony."  
  
I nodded, trying to remember how to make my lips move to create the sound of that name. "It's been a long time since I've heard such a name." I admitted. Then I paused for a second. "I think I used to know an Anthony once, back on Chikyuu-sei. He... I seem to remember him having brown hair." I chuckled to myself, doting on memories that I hadn't allowed to surface since... since I decided never to fear Rurutip again. "We used to sing together in a choir. It was a joke, because his name was Tony, and mine Maria."  
  
I closed my eyes, and sighed.  
  
"Only you, every thought I've ever known,  
every where I go, you'll be...  
All the world is only you and me...  
  
Tony... Tony...."  
  
I looked up at his carefully blank expression and sighed once more. "Silly romantic love songs. I don't sing those anymore."  
  
When he didn't answer me, I met his sparkling green eyes. He took a deep breath, then began to sing himself, his voice a clear, controlled, and quite obviously classically trained tenor:  
  
"Maria... I just met a girl named Maria...  
And suddenly that name,  
Will never bet he same to me....  
  
Maria, I just kissed a girl named Maria..."  
  
I gasped in shock. "You know it?"   
  
"Yes." he nodded slowly. Then he scratched his hair. "I bleached my hair out last week. And I used to live in a small town in North America. And I used to sing the Highschool choir with my friends... and I used to sing those songs all the time with a girl named... Maria."  
  
Tears filled my eyes. "Tony?"  
  
He nodded slowly, and I just sat there, shocked.   
  
He knelt slowly on the grass and took my hand in his. "We were all so worried about you." he whispered. "We thought you were dead... Your parents wouldn't tell us a thing."  
  
I answered, in equally low tones, "I told them not to." I met his eyes, and found that they, too were sparkling with unshed tears. So strange to see that, so strange to feel emotions coming from him, to have him touching me merely to touch, not to hit or kiss or fuck. "Are they... still alive?"  
  
He nodded. "They still live in the same house. When they learned that I was coming here, they asked me to look for you."  
  
I sobbed with relief.  
  
"Maria, I'm so happy I've found you..." he whispered and pulled me close for a hug. I froze, uncertain, then returned the embrace. It had been seventeen years since someone had hugged me last.  
  
Then, from our left came a growl. I looked up at the furious scowl of Ru, who was standing nearby, and jumped to my feet.  
  
"Ningen." Rurutip snarled at me, standing with his feet apart and his hands crossed over his chest nearby. His tail was loose and lashing angrily. I shivered at the anger in his voice. "The fuck are you doing?!"  
  
"This human and I are old friends." I answered softly, eyes on Ru's boots. "We were just... expressing our joy at finding one another again."  
  
Ru's narrow eyes slitted dangerously, and I took a step away from Tony hastily, knowing the look. I approached Ru with the appropriate amount of humility.  
  
"Please don't hurt him, Ru-kun." I whispered under my breath.  
  
I glared down at me, grabbed my upper arm, and dragged me back into the palace and to his rooms.  
  
The last I saw of Tony's face, he was staring after us with horrified puzzlement.  
  
*** 


	3. ... Is Where the Heart Is

"Rabusongu - Part Three"  
--Vega  
***  
  
"What did you think you were doing, embracing that weak human male in plain view!" Rurutip snarled angrily as soon as the bedroom doors hissed closed behind us.  
  
"I- I didn't think that-" I stuttered, but he cut me off.  
  
"That's it exactly, you WEREN'T thinking!"  
  
Insulted, I pulled out of his arms and turned away from him, crossing my arms over my chest and staring out the window at the rose sky.  
  
He came up behind me and wrapped his large arms around my waist, breathing warm air into my ear and ruffling my hair.   
  
"You know what I feel," he said softly. "I don't like seeing you with another male."  
  
"I wasn't going to do anything." I answered, just as softly. "I know what it would do to your hear – reputation." I covered my slip hastily, hoping he hadn't heard. "But Tony and I .. We go way back. I haven't seen him since before I met you."  
  
Ru sighed, and began to nibble on my skin. I leaned my head out of the way obligingly.  
  
"Fine. But don't ever touch the brat again," Ru snapped between bites, "Or I'll kill him. I don't like you smelling like someone else. Come," he took my hand and we crossed the living room to the bathing chambers, "we're taking a bath."  
  
I giggled, and jumped onto his back, wrapping arms around his thick neck. "Just as long as I get sit on the steps. You nearly drown me last time." I said sulkily and began to kiss his exposed shoulder.  
  
"Maybe," he rumbled.  
  
***  
  
I was anxious to find Tony when I woke up in a jumble of towels and hair on the bathroom floor, but Ru wouldn't let me leave alone.  
  
I think he was afraid that I would love Tony and forget him.  
  
How could he still not trust me after seventeen years?  
  
***  
  
Later in the evening Rurutip and I were summoned to the large sitting room that Vejii used to conduct meetings in. There were a number of elites there, Saiya-jinn and otherwise. It seemed like a sort of small social gathering.  
  
I was relieved to see Tony there and unharmed, and from the look on his face, he felt the same about me.  
  
"Maria!" he hissed under his breath, moving to grab my elbow and steer me away from the crowd. I jerked back from his touch.  
  
"Please... don't." I said softly, and he stared at me with undisguised horror. "Saiya-jinn have a very acute sense of smell. I can't smell like you. Please, don't touch me."  
  
He swallowed heavily and nodded. "Sure. Okay. Are you... alright?"  
  
"I'm fine." I smiled disarmingly. "Why wouldn't I be?"  
  
"Well, the way that guy LOOKED at you..." he began nervously.  
  
"Oh, pish-tosh." I waved that away. "Rurutip wouldn't hurt me. He was just... startled, that's all. People don't hug often around here."  
  
"Oh."   
  
There was a moment of silence and I looked over at Vejii, who was sprawled with superior arrogance on a couch, laying on his side, one knee crooked and his glass and hand resting on that while he propped up his upper body with his other elbow. Rurutip was whispering something in his ear, and Vejii was staring right at me.  
  
He flipped his head to indicate that he wanted me to come to his side and I bid Tony good-night and knelt at Vejii's feet. He ran a hand over my hair, thinking, as he had done from the moment we first met. Then he said:  
  
"You know him?"  
  
"Hai," I answered.   
  
"He has requested to take you back to Chikyuu-sei with him."  
  
I looked up and saw the veiled pain in both their eyes.  
  
"I shall do what ever pleases my lord." I said quietly, but the small tremor in my voice betrayed me. I had become resigned to my fate; I knew that I would never seen Chikyuu again. And yet, here, now, something was stirred back to life within me at the chance.... Oh, how I yearned to see that blue sky again!  
  
Vejii stared at me long and hard, looking much older than his sixteen years. For a frightening moment he looked not like wise and just boy I had had a hand in raising, but a terrifying furious replica of his late older brother.  
  
I shuddered. Then I turned large eyes on Rurutip. "Would you let me go, if I asked?"  
  
One side of his lip curled back in a snarl. "No." He said. "I shall NEVER release you."  
  
And with that he stormed out of the room. I watched him go, my eyes brimming with tears that I couldn't find a reason to shed. Then I hid my face and, for the first time I could remember, I ignored Vejii's enraged shouts as I ran from the room myself.  
  
***  
  
I hugged my cold body tightly as I sat under a large tree in Vejii's garden, staring at the cold stars that only dared to wink back, and not give me all the answers.  
  
I had long ago ceased my sobbing, though why I had ever begun was still a question to me. Was I hurt by their lack of trust in me? That they thought I was so fickle that I would run away with Tony at my first opportunity? Did sixteen years mean NOTHING to them?!  
  
Was I terrified by the fact that even after all those years, Ru maybe still only saw me as a THING to keep locked away? Was I betrayed by their deep feeling of hate towards what I used to be?  
  
Did they ... want to keep me hidden from my roots? Did they want to keep me cut off? Isolated? All theirs?  
  
Did I mean anything to my Saiya-jinn boys? Or was I still nothing more than an easy lay, soft hair, and a sweet voice?  
  
Or was it that Rurutip had just misunderstood what I had asked. I said, "Will you let me go?" implying, "Will you let me visit Chikyuu?"  
  
I suppose he heard, "Will you release me so I can go back to Chikyuu forever?" No wonder he was upset.  
  
I didn't look up when a shadow fell over my shoulders and the sounds of armour clanking against the bark of the tree broke the still air.  
  
Rurutip could move silently, if he wanted to. But he was making noise on purpose, which he usually only ever did when he was upset with me. Oddly enough though, he didn't yell as I expected him to.  
  
I felt his arm encircle my shoulders and draw me as close to his hot body as I could go. I stayed there for a long time, not wishing to move, praying that Tony wouldn't find us, nor Vejii.  
  
The tears I had been suppressing returned full-force and I squeezed back with all the strength I had.  
  
Between my snuffles, I couldn't help but notice how good Rurutip smelled.  
  
After a very long time, one in which Ru said not a word and merely squeezed gently back, I finally calmed, and we sat in comfortably silence for a while.  
  
But, in the end, my curiosity broke the moment.   
  
"Why don't you trust me?" I asked softly, not even sure he could hear me. But his grunt indicated that he could. "After all this time, do you think I still yearn to escape you?"  
  
He sighed and my head rose and fell with his chest as he slouched against the tree so that we were nearly lying down. "After all these years, why must I feel as if must control your trust?" He responded in a forced-even tone.  
  
"You can trust me." I answered, my voice still shaky. "And you can trust my judgement." I pressed a hand against his chest to push my face up to his. "Rurutip, for sixteen years I have given you and Vejii nothing but all that I am. You have become the centre of my world, and the only reason for my existence." I brushed the tips of my fingers across his soft lips, but he pulled away.  
  
"Please, listen to me." I pleaded. "For once, hear me out."  
  
He nodded, and I continued. "The first time I saw you, I was terrified. You saw that yourself. But you were interesting, intelligent... and lonely." I leaned my head against his shoulder, one hand over his heart to fell the familiar quadruple thumba-da-da-thump of his heart, so different from my own. "The first time you touched me in my bed, I wanted to kill you. I hated you with ever fibre of my being."  
  
"Shut up," he groaned "Mayra... Don't say anything else."  
  
But I continued stubbornly. "But Ru, you are a product of your society. There is a heart in here, I can feel it right now. You made me lonely because you were shut off. Your moral codes would not allow the weakness of emotional attachment. And so you made me yours in the only way you knew how."  
  
He moved to cover my mouth with his hands and I jerked away, standing and stepping a few paces away, the chill abruptly returning to my flesh.  
  
"No! Listen!" I hissed. "I hated you Rurutip. I hated you with everything I had! But... then you hit me. And I saw how your face turned red and you suppressed the tears and I realized that, even though you may never be capable of admitting anything remotely close to love for me, I was all you had. I was the only person that you could let in, even if I only got to stand at the open door ...and... you were all I had, too."  
  
He made as if to stand and I pushed him gently back onto his back. "Rurutip... I came to feel pity for you, because the way in which you live forces you to feel nothing. But my society does not discourage that. Rurutip... I have to come to care about you. I won't leave you, even if you remove the slave bonds that keep me here."  
  
I leaned down and planted a tender kiss on his lips. Immediately, Rurutip wrapped his arms around my shoulders and flipped us over in the grass, despising that I might be the aggressor, the one on top.  
  
I stared up at him as he withdrew his tongue from my mouth. "You talk to much, dumbass woman."  
  
I grinned softly. "Hai, wagakimi. I am aware of that. And yet you let me speak."  
  
He slapped the side of my face playfully and then licked the sting away. I smiled and curled my legs around his torso.  
  
"You have no idea what you're talking about." Rurutip whispered in my ear, and I stared past his head to the heavens once more.  
  
"No." I agreed. "None at all."  
  
***  
  
The next morning, when I awoke a little later than usual, I found Ru gone. That, in itself, was no surprise. What WAS the surprise was the message left for me on the data pad on the table.  
  
I turned the little "play" button on and Rurutip's head filled the palm-sized screen on the tabletop. He was scratching his scar irritably.  
  
"The King and I have discussed this matter, and we have realized that if you are denied this, we will never hear the end of the bitching. You may return with this human to Chikyuu, HOWEVER, you will go on Celik's ship, and I will accompany you. This is a visit ONLY, do you understand, Ningen? Pack your things. We leave when you awake."  
  
I all but danced into the bathroom to prepare. Not only was I going to get to see Chikyuu-sei again... but I was going with Rurutip!  
  
***  
  
I could tell that Vejii truly did not wish me to be out of his presence for so long as the journey and visit would take. It would be the first time in his entire life I was not right there, at all times.  
  
I assured him that he was a King; he could look after himself.  
  
During the week-long voyage back to Chikyuu, I tried to remember all that I could from my past life. I dug up every memory I had, and was disappointed when I found I had almost none at all.  
  
The air between Ru and I was tense. I believe he still thought that I was going to take this opportunity to attempt an escape. I admit, I had toyed with the idea off and on in the yearlier part of our sixteen years, but learned that Vejiita-sei was best.  
  
So, I did what I could to ease his worries, but he fretted in silence nonetheless.  
  
How to make a lummox of a warrior realize that just because you are his fucktoy, you don't automatically hate him?  
  
It helped that Tony was forced by some strange rule to travel on a different ship - although I had never heard of such a rule until just then.  
  
I know both Vejii and Ru were terrified that once I reached Chikyuu, I'd decide to stay. For if I did, there was no way that either of them could find it in themselves to deny this one small bit of happiness to me.  
  
***  
  
When we landed seven days later in the middle of a bustling metropolis, I clung onto Ru's hand as though I were afraid I'd float away. In a way, I was. After so many years on Vejiita-sei, even with the gravity deflectors, I felt as if I was bobbing on the moon when I stepped out into the zero-G atmosphere.  
  
Of course, that was impossible. Someone had destroyed our moon decades ago.  
  
Even now, seventeen years later, nobody knew who. Maybe he or she was dead.  
  
***  
  
Tony met me eagerly on the platform, having been on Chikyuu for nearly three hours already, and I laughed at his nervousness.  
  
Oh, naive and innocent Maria, have you returned home at last?  
  
I pondered. If this was supposed to be home, why didn't it feel like it?  
  
Brushing away the apprehension, I let Tony lead the way to a subway entrance. Rurutip balked at the claustrophobic space, and refused to use them, then scooped me up over one shoulder and stated rather plainly that we were going to my house to eat.  
  
He remembered how to find it.  
  
I shrieked with delight as he dove into the air. It was so rare that Ru and I ever got to fly.  
  
***  
  
I stared at my front door for a very long time before getting up the nerve to ring the door bell.... it felt so strange to be ringing at my own house.  
  
A tiny greyed woman answered the door, her face well lived in and her hair almost completely white.   
  
I stared at her for a very long time before I realized that this was my mother.  
  
"O... okassan?" I said softly, and she studied my face intently.  
  
Then her eyes widened and began to sparkle.  
  
"Maria!"  
  
***  
  
Dad came out to the steps and squeezed me silly, and for the first time in a very long while, I was weeping not out of fear or hatred, or pain, but sheer relief.  
  
Then Rurutip made his presence known and my parents glared hatefully at him. Ru smirked back, indifferent to their hatred. Why should he care what they thought of him? I was his, after all, and there wasn't a damn thing they could do about it.  
  
My parents exclaimed loudly how overjoyed they were that I was home at last, and that they had never given up hope that they'd one day see me again.  
  
It made my heart twist in a way that it hadn't in a very long time to hold them close and tell them that this was not permanent, that I had duties back on Vejiita-Sei that could not be ignored.  
  
For a moment I thought both of the little, fragile humans I held close were going to die on the spot from disappointment, but I was relieved that Mom sighed and said, "If you have to, dear. Please, come inside."  
  
My mother had always had a respect for kept promises and duty.  
  
Still, I had to keep reminding myself that although I wanted to squeeze my parents for all I was worth, the were HUMAN, and OLD.   
  
They couldn't HANDLE that much.  
  
Not that I had become stronger, but I was used to using my full strength at all times. Even the heaviest of punches could easily be brushed off by a Saiyan, and I had to work to make myself known if I chose to do so in such a manner.  
  
Ru, probably cautious of me moving out of his line of sight, started towards the door too, but, surprising me, my frail little father turned back and said, "Don't think I don't recognize you. You're not welcome."   
  
I turned back to my father with a look of horror on my face. Rurutip's tail bristled visibly, and flexed. I knew exactly what he wanted to do with it and panicked briefly.  
  
I hastily made my way back outside to stand right between Ru and my father, looking up into the former's face. "Ru," I said softly, "please, don't."  
  
He glowered down at me, then, very very quietly he said. "You make sure he keeps his mouth shut."  
  
I nodded slowly and turned back into the house, Ru coming in right after me. Dad blanched and said nothing.  
  
I sighed, shoulders tense and tears burning the back of my eyes and jumped only slightly when Ru's tail snaked around my waist. It didn't move all night.  
  
***  
  
"I don't know," I mumbled, turning to look at my rear in the mirror. "I don't remember if I ever looked good in jeans."  
  
Rurutip, lounging suggestively on my bed in the basement, stared at my ass too. "I don't like them." he said. "They show off too much. Only I'm allowed to see that stuff."  
  
"Huh," I sighed and stripped back out of them.  
  
Mom hadn't touched my room at all after I left, I'd learned. She came in and dusted regularly, made the bed after I left that first night, and vacuumed once a week. She had wanted to make sure that everything was still here when I came back.  
  
She had been so certain that I was going to come back.  
  
It almost creeped me out.  
  
Out of curiosity the night I had arrived, I had gone down to rummage through my closet, to see if anything still fit. Surprisingly, a lot of it did. Ru sure hadn't let me get overweight, I can say that much for him.  
  
When my parents had retired for the night, Ru and I had retreated to my room, and he was enjoying the small fashion show. Dad had made it more to plain to Ru that he didn't want Ru in my room, and had even made a point of pulling out the sofa-bed.  
  
But, Ru wasn't going to sleep anywhere else, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop him. Personally, I didn't mind.  
  
Wearing only underwear (which was STRANGE after all this time!), and a tank top, I jumped onto the bed and mock-punched Ru in the stomach. "Your favourite outfit is my birthday-suit!"  
  
He chuckled and we rolled over. Once again my arms were pinned above my head, and it brought a flash of fear and pain with it. Old memories surfaced and I shuddered....  
  
**I tried to pull away from him, to pull back, but could not move. I began to panic, tears leaking out of the corners of my eyes. "Please, please, don't Rurutip!"  
Something warm and furry wrapped around my waist and pulled me flush against his side.   
"Please, please..." I whispered. "No..."  
"Shut up, Ningen." Rurutip whispered, and I could hear the smile in his voice. "If you're too loud, you'll wake up your 'tousan, and then I'll have to kill him."  
I froze, and he finally moved his hand from my mouth. "Please, no." I pleaded under my breath, I begged.  
I felt rather than saw his hand run down my cheek, into my hair, and along my shoulder.  
"Rurutip." I said softly, begging in only one word.  
"I won't do anything you don't want me to if you obey." He answered in gentle tones. "I merely wish to speak to you more. This seems the most feasible method." The furry thing around my waist -his tail, I realized - pulled me so much that I was actually on top of his broad chest.  
I began to tremble. I know I had resolved never to be afraid of Rurutip again, but now he was in my bed, wearing no shirt, clasping my body to his. I was scared absolutely shitless.  
I stayed very quiet, and felt very small as he shifted his grip to the back of my shoulders, pushing me against his broad, hard chest. I whimpered.  
"Stop making such pathetic sounds." Rurutip snapped. "I hate it when you whine. And stop shaking like that." he snarled, "Or you'll make me do something you'll regret."  
I TRIED to stop quaking, really I did, but the threat made me even more terrified, and I shook more.  
Rurutip snarled low in his throat, and the sound held warning.  
I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my cheek into his neck, trying with all my might to relax and stop squirming, but my body wouldn't stop shivering.  
The second sound that came from him was a growl that held less menace than lust.  
The third was a purr that was pure enjoyment.  
I grew tense and snapped my head up when I realized why. I had finally relaxed, but had been so intent on calming myself down that I hadn't paid any attention to where my various limbs were sprawled.  
My lips had been pressed to the skin under his ear. My hands had been fisted over his huge pectorals... and my legs had somehow shifted so one was on the outside of his hip, while the other was in between his legs.  
I whimpered again when his teeth closed gently on one of my ears.  
"Just remember..." he smiled in the dark, and I felt him roll. I was suddenly pinned beneath him on my mattress, his hands on my shoulders, his legs on either side of my knees, and his tail lashing in the dark as he arched his entire body. "...you started this."**  
  
I whined, my eyes squeezed shut and Rurutip paused in his assault of my bare shoulders to stare at my face with a puzzled expression. "What the hell's wrong with you?"  
  
I squirmed out of his grasp and pulled myself up to the head board, the tears sparkling in my eyes.  
  
"What's wrong!?" he hissed.  
  
I hid my face from him, but he pulled my hands away to meet my eyes.  
  
"Kuso, what's wrong with you? Why are you so afraid of me all of a sudden?"  
  
I shook my head slowly. "It's ... Nothing. I just... was..." a sob caught in the back of my throat and I refused to let it out. He waited me out. "... remembering."  
  
There was a long, heavy pause, and I heard Rurutip sigh, then he sat up himself. "I knew this would happen." he snarled under his breath and stood, stalking out of the room. "You're useless tonight."  
  
I stared after him for a long while before looking around me.  
  
My room, once the only place in the universe where I could feel safe and happy, was suddenly cold and empty. I felt so alone, I could barely stand it.  
  
I snuggled down into the sheets and lay on my back, staring at the ceiling, trying to fall asleep, but I was cold, so I rolled over to wrap myself around Ru's warmth and realized with a start that he was not there. I suppressed a desperate whimper and closed my eyes.  
  
I twisted and turned, but could not find a comfortable position to sleep in. The bed was far too flat for me, too firm, and I finally ended up pulling all my sheets and pillows off the bed and throwing them into a jumbled pile on my carpet, then tried to fall asleep on that.  
  
It was much better, but there was still no Rurutip, and I was very cold.  
  
Peeking at the clock - 1:26 am - I snuck upstairs, preparing to go outside to try to find Ru, but didn't have to go past the living room. Ru had taken the hint and fallen asleep on the pull-out couch.  
  
I padded over quietly and gazed down at him. In his sleep, Ru's face actually relaxed and the constant scowl eased away. He looked so peaceful and innocent. Even his angry scar's pinkish ferocity seemed to lesson.  
  
The starlight from the nearby bay window shone onto his body, highlighting his raven-black hair with threads of mystical silver.  
  
I watched the rise and fall of his chest, breathing in time with him, taking deep, cleansing breaths.  
  
Then, startling me back to myself, a few whispered escaped from Ru's soft lips. "If you're going to stand there all night, you might as well climb in."  
  
I smiled gently, grateful that he understood my dilema, and crawled onto the lumpy mattress beside him. Ru opened his arms for me and I snuggled into his bare chest, wrapping both my legs around one of his.  
  
He nuzzled my neck briefly, nipping, then fell once more into sleep.  
  
I followed soon after.  
  
***  
  
I don't think Dad was pleased to come downstairs the next morning to find Ru and I tangled around one another. At some point during the night, Ru had awoken and began to do some delightfully naughty things.  
  
I'm surprised he could be so quiet. He'd never done it silently before.  
  
I stared sheepishly at my Dad's angry face from the sheets, feeling like the teenager I had been the last time I had seen him, and crawled back into my clothes before going for a shower.  
  
That was another odd thing... showers! How long had it been since I'd had one of those? When I came back upstairs, Dad was watching the morning news on the TV, and I stared at it intently. TVs! I'd forgotten about those! I wondered briefly if "Buffy" was still on...  
  
At any rate, Mom stuffed me full of breakfast; lots of wonderful things like pancakes and cereal and orange juice and bacon. Things I'd forgotten I loved.  
  
When I inquired where Rurutip had gotten to, they said with a smile that he'd left already.  
  
That led me to worry, and I dressed quickly before going out to look for him. I came upstairs in the usual powder blue dress I always wore and Mom made a horrified sound. I looked down at my attire, considered her less-than pleased reaction to my unintentional but obvious gesture of subservience, then ran back downstairs to throw on a sweater and jeans.  
  
I really wasn't comfortable in them, but at least it wouldn't Mom a coronary, and I wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb.  
  
I found Ru in the backyard, under a tree, and I sat down beside him. "I'm sorry they hate you." I said softly.  
  
"Feh," he snorted. "I don't care."  
  
"No, I guess you don't."  
  
There was another long pause. Not uncomfortable, though.   
  
"What will you do here, Ningen?" he asked, "We have a whole goddamned week and I'm already bored.  
  
I turned my glittering eyes to the sky. "Remember the colour blue."   
  
***  
  
My old friends eventually learned that I was home, and wanted to have a party of sorts, but I said, rather plainly, "no."  
  
I didn't do that sort of thing anymore anyway.  
  
Around dusk that day, I sent a message to Vejii, thanking him for letting me come, and assuring him that I would be back on Vejiita-sei before he knew it.  
  
Chikyuu was not all I remembered it being.   
  
Everywhere I looked I saw the bad - litter on the streets, homelessness, lousy jobs, and depressed and lonely people. That wasn't all there was, I know. Chikyuu-sei had not fallen into squalor, but I was unconsciously comparing it to Vejiita-sei, were everyone had a home, and the grounds were ALWAYS clean and bright because there were so many slaves to do it.  
  
I couldn't stand the smell of the polluted waterways and sewers that ran under the roads, and the car exhaust made my eyes burn constantly.  
  
After wandering around my out haunts the second day I went back to my parent's house and had a shower immediately to wash the reek of industrialisation away.  
  
The third day I didn't leave the house at all, and Tony came by with a few of our old crowd. I can't even begin to explain how uncomfortable I felt, being grilled by these strangers, alone. Rurutip had taken to staying on Celik's ship in the next town over.  
  
And as all the people I used to know and love tried to force me to re-live my old life, I realized how dissatisfied with it I was. There was no meaning to such an existence. No one truly cared about me or what I had to say, and I had no purpose.  
  
As a child, I had fooled myself into thinking that having an education, a job, a boyfriend, would make my life have meaning, but as I looked around me, at my friends and their husbands and wives and children, I realized that they were no more influential than ants in a glass jar.  
  
Not that I thought myself superior... it's just that, because I had duties back on Vejiita-sei, I felt like I had MEANING.  
  
And Chikyuu just wasn't cutting it.  
  
On the fourth day Celik pounded on the front door of my parent's house and I answered the door sleepily, as it was barely three in the morning.   
  
"Here, Ningen." he said, and handed me a data pad. "From the King."  
  
I thanked him as he left, then ran into the kitchen, snapping on the light so I could read the screen.   
My parents, who had also been awoken by Celik's noise, came into the kitchen to peer over my shoulder at the image of Vejii that appeared in my palm.  
  
"Maria." He said plainly, which made me curious. He very rarely called me that in a message. "You have to come back now! There's this.... female! From Ieart-sei! I can't make her go away!" His fresh sixteen-year old face contorted in a look of extreme panic, exasperation, and fear. "She keeps... trying to stick her antennae in my mouth! You have to help!"  
  
I laughed out loud, and my parents sent me puzzled looks.  
  
"Please, Okassan!" Vejii whimpered, "Come home now!" And then the message-pad shut off.  
  
I stared at it for a moment, struck dumb and stunned that Vejii had called me "Okassan." He thought of me as his mother...? I mean, I knew I had been a large part of his upbringing... but, MOTHER?  
  
No, it just must have been a Freudian slip, that's all. I dismissed it as just that.  
  
Behind me my parents were conversing silently with concerned looks, and I turned to them. "I guess I have to go back." I shrugged, still chuckling. "My King is having his first crisis of the heart, and I must be there for him, as he commands."  
  
Mom stared at me for a while, her eyes sparkling with the tears that I knew were bound to fall soon enough. "You... can't..." She whispered, horrified.  
  
"I must." I shrugged. "Either I go willingly, or Ru will drag me back. I'd rather use my own feet."  
  
My parents said nothing, because they knew that nothing would make me change my mind.  
  
I had to go home.  
  
***  
  
Celik landed his craft in my yard like a pro.  
  
Tony stared at the large metal ship that was sitting like a giant grey spider on my parent's back lawn. Then he turned to me and put his hands on my shoulders. For once I didn't pull away.  
  
"Don't go, Maria." he said softly. "You don't have to go back."  
  
"I know," I smiled weakly in return, fondling the fabric of my dress. It was the first time I had worn it in almost a week, and it felt oddly comforting. "But Vejiita-ou needs me. I can't say no."  
  
"Yes!" he hissed. "You can! Please, you don't have to be a slave anymore!"  
  
"Tony." I said softly, looking to meet his eyes, "I haven't really been a slave in years."  
  
Then I turned away from him and towards Rurutip, who was waiting with an annoyed look on his ever-scowling face at the foot of the gangplank. Celik was waiting with a smug smirk next to him, imitating his pose.  
  
Tony grabbed my arm and twirled me back to him. "Maria! You don't really mean to go back with... that THING!" he exclaimed, waving vaguely towards Ru.  
  
I glared at Tony for having insulted Rurutip in such a way and yanked my hand away, ripping free of his grasp.  
  
I looked him right in the eye and said "I do."  
  
Then I turned my back on my family and friends for the final time and walked over to Rurutip, smiling up at him faintly.  
  
He glared back and his tail snaked out to enclose my hips.  
  
And then we walked into the ship.  
  
***   
  
THE END 


End file.
